Superman: An Iconic DC Story Secretly Changed the Man of Steel Forever!

Superman's experience with the Black Mercy plant fundamentally changed who he is. How did the parasitic plant change the Man of Steel forever?

(WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Justice League #52 by Jeff Loveness, Robson Rocha, Daniel Henriques, and Romulo Fajardo Jr, on sale now.)

In 1985s Superman Annual #11, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons wrote a stand-alone story that thirty-five years later is still creating ripples in DCU's continuity. The story, "For the Man Who Has Everything" has one of the Man of Steel's toughest supervillains, Mongul, attacking him in the most unique way.  In Justice League #52, Superman reveals that Mongul's attack in Moore and Gibbons' story changed him on a fundamental level.

Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Superman Annual #11 introduced a new menace to the DCU in the form of a plant. In the story, Mongul attacks Supes but instead of trying to beat him in a one-on-one brawl, Mongul uses the Black Mercy plant to subdue the Man of Steel. The Black Mercy plant is an extraterrestrial plant-like organism that parasitically attaches to people and feeds off them while producing a hallucinogenic effect. The Black Mercy plant slowly consumes its victims while producing a realistic dream-like state based on the victim's deepest desires. After the Black Mercy is attached to Superman, for example, he dreams of a normal life on his destroyed home planet of Krypton, happily married and with children.